Background

Clements Farm can be traced back to the Doomesday Book and on this site Sir Charles Pearson built a model stud farm at the beginning of the 20th Century.

About 1992 East Herts District Council granted permission for Clements Farm to become a golf course, with the buildings serving as the Club house and related facilities.

The developers took a very positive view of the historical and environmental issues and after long negotiations with the Planners, approval was received for 23 dwellings within the envelope of the existing buildings, together with new buildings for garages and storage purposes.

Challenge

The condition of the buildings was very poor and all the roofs had to be replaced and large areas of rotten brickwork had to be cut out and rebuilt.

In the late 19th and 20th Century red smoothfaced brick and deep red smoothfaced machine made tiles were particularly popular on dominant civic buildings, churches and similar projects.

Solution

The original tiles on Clements Farm were a natural deep rich red and the Dreadnought Plum Red Smoothfaced traditional single camber tile provided a colour indistinguishable from the originals.

Result

The strong natural red of the roof and brickwork, highlighted by the blue brick detailing, has brought back to life a derelict ruin and makes a powerful case for demanding that "like is replaced with like" in re-roofing situations.